Cons

Bottom Line

The TDK EB950 competes on the level of higher-priced earphones, making this bass-lover's pair a solid deal worthy of our Editors' Choice award.

20 Jun 2013More »

TDK's relaunch into the consumer audio realm over the last few years has been interesting to watch. The first products were stylized boomboxes that offered more in the way of design than performance, while the TDK ST700 High Fidelity On-Ear Headphones provided a better audio experience. Now, with the TDK EB950, the company has knocked it out of the park. At $129.95 (list), these in-canal earphones consistently sell online for much closer to $80 and yet perform on the level of models that are significantly more expensive. Purists looking for flat response should steer clear, but the EB950 provides plenty for lovers of deep bass and crisp highs. A highly sculpted frequency response makes modern mixes and classical music shine. Throw in the inline remote and microphone for iOS devices, and you're getting some serious value for your investment—the EB950 easily nabs our Editors' Choice award.

DesignThe TDK EB950's design is quite unassuming—all black, with lightweight earpieces that house dynamic drivers and outward-facing grilles that help the earphones convey a greater sense of space and depth in the stereo field. This also means, however, that like open headphones, the EB950 leaks audio to the outside world—when you play these loudly, your fellow train commuters and coworkers will hear your playlist.

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The default eartips for the EB950 are the woefully under-used Comply foam tips. You often see Comply tips ship with earphones, but they're rarely the pair attached to the earpieces out of the box, probably because they have a sort of boring, functional look to them. Who cares? Press these into your ear canal after compressing them with your fingers for a second, and they'll slowly expand, forming an excellent, secure seal that shuts out a wide swath of ambient noise, and helps provide a solid bass response.

The inline remote sits in the compartment where the left and right earpieces' cables join. It works with Apple iOS devices for controlling playback, track navigation, and answering calls. The built-in mic provides reasonable clarity, but we're talking about cellular audio fidelity, so don't expect anything better than what you're already used to during a mobile phone call. The remote compartment itself feels a little cheaply made—tap it with your finger, and you can hear the central button rattling around a bit. Oh, well—that's the only thing that feels budget about these earphones.

Included with the EB950: three sets of silicon ear tips in various sizes (in addition to the Comply pair), a shirt clip, a TRRS-to-TRS adapter, and a small black snap-shut pouch.

PerformanceThe EB950 passes the deep bass test easily. At top volumes, there are no hints of distortion, even on challenging deep-bass-loaded tracks like The Knife's "Silent Shout" and Thom Yorke's "Cymbal Rush." There's definitely some boosting going on with the sub-bass frequencies, though; not only do these frequencies not distort, but they are conveyed with power. This doesn't serve to make things muddy, primarily because, like many deep bass earphones, the EB950 matches its substantial low frequency response with sculpted high-mids and high frequencies. Guitar rock is delivered with a serious crunch and crackle in the highs, and deep thumps on the kick drums. It may not be the most accurate response out there, but the EB950 definitely delivers an exciting sound.

On classical musical, like John Adams' "The Chairman Dances," the higher register strings are delivered with a noticeable boost in high-mids and highs—the end result is they sound a bit brighter, edgier, and crisper than they would on a flat response pair. The effect is nice, however, because it's rounded out by the bass response. Lower register strings and percussion don't sound overwhelmingly boosted here, but they definitely get a bit more presence from the EB950 than they would from a flatter pair. Lower notes get a nice deep resonance without sounding too unnatural, and the big drum hits at the end of the track are delivered with power, but not so much deep bass that things become comical, as they sometimes can on a truly bass-heavy pair like the Denon Urban Raver AH-C300 In-Ear Headphones.

The kick drum loop on Jay-Z and Kanye West's "No Church in the Wild" has a nice treble edge to its attack, but the EB950 also makes sure it's not lacking in low-end presence, while the sub-bass synth hits that sometimes take a backseat on earphones with less low-end sound powerful here. Yet, for all the booming low end, vocals are front and center, clear and articulate, and despite all of the high frequency boosting, things never sound harsh. For bass lovers, the EB950 is a great example of how things can be boosted and tweaked and still sound clear, clean, and exciting.

It's not that the EB950 sounds overwhelmingly better than, say, the Bowers & Wilkins C5 In-Ear Headphones or the aforementioned Denon Urban Raver—it's more that it can hang with both pairs, yet it costs significantly less than either. If you'd rather have a more refined bass experience, with subtle low-end and a much flatter overall response, the recent MartinLogan Mikros 70 is a solid option in the EB950's general price range. And if all of these seem too expensive and you're really just looking for some budget earphones with some decent bass response, the RHA MA450i is not nearly on the level of the other earphones mentioned in this review, but it costs a fraction of their prices. As far as bang for your buck, however, you'll have a tough time beating the exciting, distortion-free audio performance of the $130 (or $80, depending on where you look) TDK EB950—it seems almost under-priced, which is reason enough to award it our Editors' Choice.